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Chapter 79
The place I followed the couple to was a mysterious place.
As soon as I turned on the water, hot water came out. After turning on the water in the orphanage, I had to wait a long time for hot water to come out. The best part was that I didn’t have to eat while competing with the kids.
The couple, no, my parents, took care of me with all their heart.
Have you ever felt like your world was being reconstructed…? Their spiritual and material support changed my self-esteem, my growth, and my life.
My parents were like gods to me.
My parents were a couple who did not have children, as it is often said, but they were full of love. They raised me with love and cared for me. I still couldn’t forget the day I fell asleep between my parents for the first time.
If I had to pick the happiest moment of my life, it was that day.
Then, the mother became pregnant naturally when she had a child. The good fortune that did not happen when she was looking for it, finally came.
This was also said to be common with people.
It was a familiar story that a couple who couldn’t have children adopted and raised a child, and a child would come. That common story was unfortunate for me. I thought I was going to be a little happy now, though I felt anxious that there was an existence that could prevent it.
Even when I was young, I knew everything.
Even when I was young, I felt the same as an adult.
The reason for the uneasiness was obvious… No matter how much they loved me, wouldn’t they love their own child more than an adopted daughter?
When the mother’s stomach was full, the more my anxiety grew.
Finally, on the day my sibling was born, I ate alone for the first time in that house.
…No, I ate alone for the first time in my life.
Even at the crowded orphanage, I had never eaten alone, and even less so since he was adopted because my parents always took care of me first. I was guarding the house by myself, and then my parents came back.
Unlike before, my parents, who came in with a small living thing in their arms, left me alone and entered the room.
The anxiety I felt became a reality. That day I felt like an angel forsaken by God. What did God think when the God who gave me precious wings broke the wings and threw me to the floor…?
And, how did the angels feel?
—Ray.
I was looking at the remnants of my parents who had entered the room from behind young Ahn Hye-young, and I blinked at the sound calling me.
My name was Hye-young.
It was a name my parents gave me dearly.
—Ray, wake up.
Even though I wanted to ignore the call, I couldn’t.
—Ray, please.
…Calling so desperately.
I was glad someone found me. I had no choice but to run towards him as if I had run to my parents with a bright smile like when I was a child, to a place where there is someone looking for me. Where there were people who loved me…
…To the place where they know my existence.
I flew so lightly as if I had wings again.
***
“Ray.”
Lucian shook Rachel, who was lying motionless on the bed, to wake her up. Knowing that it was already a late hour, he had no choice but to wake her up because she lay with her face so white as if she had died or as if she was going to die.
“Ray, wake up.”
When she didn’t wake up even after shaking her with a fair amount of force, Lucian felt his heart rolling down.
It was as if his heart had already fallen, and he watched it roll at his feet.
“Ray, please.”
Lowering his head to make sure she was breathing, he grabbed her body and called out desperately.
“Please, open your eyes.”
Holding her by the shoulder, he called out sadly. He couldn’t even make a loud noise and just called and called mournfully and earnestly, like a whisper.
“Ray, Ray.”
“…Lucian.”
When Rachel answered, as though responding to his wish, he stopped the call and took a deep breath. Long and slow, as if he had forgotten to breathe.
“You scared me.”
“I’m sorry. But…”
Rachel scoured the face in front of her. Obviously, the eyelids were swollen, and the nosebleed was bad. However, the face she saw now was just as cool as ever.
“Are you okay…? Would you like some water?”
She nodded her head unknowingly at his words.
After pouring the water from her kettle that Amber had prepared, Lucian lifted her lightly with one arm and leaned her against the bed.
Even as she drank the water he fed her, Rachel’s gaze did not go away from Lucian.
Obviously then…
Rachel’s cheeks lit up as she remembered him kissing her. She thought as she watched him put away the glass after drinking all the water.
Oh, it was a dream.
‘To have such a dream, oh my God…’
Rachel uttered as she rubbed her hot face, “Lucian, have you ever been like that?”
“What?”
“Well, I thought I woke up from a dream, but it’s still a dream. Can I call it a dream in a dream?”
“…I never had.”
Lucian had been begging since childhood. He hoped this place was a dream. Nonetheless, where he was, was always a reality, not a dream.
Still, a dream in a dream.
It sounded like a word that would be enchanting for him just by hearing it, but somehow he became uneasy. Rachel was in front of him, and it felt like she wasn’t, so he reached out and grabbed her shoulder.
She naturally muttered, who placed her hand on the back of his hand in a confused tone.
“I think I’ve been like that lately. I thought I woke up from a dream, but I think it was a dream too.”
Lucian held her tightly as she murmured in a hazy voice.
“Ray, get well soon and attend my coronation ceremony.”
“Of course. How long have I waited for Brother’s coronation ceremony?”
“Lucian,”
“Tsk, I got it.”
Rachel let out a small laugh at her as she watched him, still insisting on his name.
It was a dream.
Everything was a dream… Her childhood dream and the deep kiss with him were all dreams. It was just a fantasy she created.
“Oh, what kind of gift do you like? If possible, I want to give you something you like…”
At her words, Lucian’s lips twitched slightly. But, as if he wanted to say something, he closed his moving lips.
“By the way, have you ever met anyone? If you rise up as the Duke, I think there will be a lot of proposals. I think it’s going to take a bit of trouble to sort it out, hehe.”
As she spoke with a bright smile, he had no choice but to suppress his rising impulse.
You’re the only one for me.
You’re the only one I need.
You’re the one I wanted as a gift.
…He wanted to say it, but he persevered.
Soon, it would be as he planned.
He would become a duke, and when the ring he prepared for her was complete, then he would propose. He would propose the most wonderfully in the world. He would let everyone know that she was his in the biggest and most splendid way, so that no one in the Empire would not know their story…
With his deep sunken eyes, he gazed at Rachel as she entered his arms. In order to proceed with all of this, there was something that had to be dealt with first.
First, to separate her from the Leon family.
That way she became a Leon again not as his sister, but his wife. It was the part he was preparing for the most. Lucian didn’t want to be brother and sister anymore. Even if they were in the same family register that was just a shell.
“Ray, I can’t wait to become the duke.”
When he became a duke, he would have all the power over her rights. From her head to her toes, even her breath belonged to him.
Thinking that, Lucian let out a sigh of excitement.
Rachel, who interpreted his sigh differently, put a hand on his arm and patted it.
“You waited a long time. I know all about Lucian’s hard work. So I’m proud of you.”
It had always been like that.
Even if he didn’t say it, she always knew his heart. Lucian, who had just calmed down a bit, rested his face on her head. He whispered as he stroked the emerald hair with his fingertips.
“It’s all thanks to you.”
It was all thanks to Rachel that he was able to live and that he could live in the future.
My world.
She was the world that allowed him to exist. He acted like no one knew he was there. However, when she called him, he became a being here.
So, wasn’t Ray his world…?
When she glanced at him lovingly and called him affectionately, he could be whom she wanted to be. She was the only one who could shape him into any shape. She was the only one who already had everything in his hand.
To the extent that he could give up his family and anything if he could only have her. What was this called…?
Enzo intervened in the sudden curiosity.
Enzo, who woke up to his intense desire, spoke in a lower, serious voice than usual.
—There is only one person who is omnipotent like that.
—Who is that?
—God.
—What is God?
—Could it be said that God was the creator of the world?
—Then my god is Ray. Because she made my world.
The black dots in Lucian’s golden eyes melted like paint.
—There was a saint who worshiped a god.
—What else is a saint?
—The first child who loved God.
—A saint…
Lucian muttered to himself, continuing to brush her hair.
—It’s my favorite word. But I don’t want to be a family. I want to be the only human being who has taken a seat next to God.
—Kuku. I hope you don’t get abandoned by God like the saint.
Enzo giggled and disappeared. Although Lucian was offended by his last words, he quickly forgot by the voice calling him softly.
My God… It was a name he liked very much.